philly weekly food issue

[katbert]

This week's Philadelphia Weekly (the one in the yellow boxes) is all about food, read online: Philadelphia Weekly Food Issue or pick one up starting tomorrow. The lead story is about the trials and tribulations of opening a restaurant in Philly and includes a lengthy section about Sushi Nation, and Kirsten Henri manages to snafu egullet.org as e-gullet.com, which of course leads to a real sitename that someone's sitting on. Good job Kirsten! Everyone else, try not jump for the geek bait.

[KatieLoeb]

This week's Philadelphia Weekly (the one in the yellow boxes) is all about food, read online: Philadelphia Weekly Food Issue or pick one up starting tomorrow. The lead story is about the trials and tribulations of opening a restaurant in Philly and includes a lengthy section about Sushi Nation, and Kirsten Henri manages to snafu egullet.org as e-gullet.com, which of course leads to a real sitename that someone's sitting on. Good job Kirsten!  Everyone else, try not jump for the geek bait.

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D'oh! Great! Now I have to write Kirsten and tell her to run a correction.

Anyone that knows her e-mail please PM me....

[philadining]

Anyone that knows her e-mail please PM me....

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Just click on her byline at the top of the on-line article, you'll get a mail-to. That works with many of the on-line columnists at the various publications.

[KatieLoeb]

Anyone that knows her e-mail please PM me....

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Just click on her byline at the top of the on-line article, you'll get a mail-to. That works with many of the on-line columnists at the various publications.

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Yeah - you'd think I knew already. But actually someone came through with her e-mail for me already. I've already sent her a short note thanking her for the mention and letting her know about the bad web address.

[MarketStEl]

...the wonky, emoticon-happy food geeks who surf the site...

Yeah, that's us, I guess. (thus confirming stereotype)

[Holly Moore]

...the wonky, emoticon-happy food geeks who surf the site...

Yeah, that's us, I guess. (thus confirming stereotype)

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A while back either Lauren McCutcheon or her editor at the Philadelphia Weekly, referring to eGullet member posts on McCutcheon's totally biased slam of the revamped Old Original Bookbinders, used very similar short-sighted, snide terms in referring to eGullet members.

Back then I commented that they didn't get eGullet. Looks like they never will, which, while sad, is what I expect from the Philadelphia Weekly.

[philadining]

Jeeze, they're just teasing us, let's not give them grounds to add "thin-skinned" to "emoticon-happy".

I think the print folks understand eGullet, that's why they're reading it! If they really thought we were merely a bunch of loonies lobbing smileys at one another, they wouldn't bother checking in.

[KatieLoeb]

Jeeze, they're just teasing us, let's not give them grounds to add "thin-skinned" to "emoticon-happy". 

I think the print folks understand eGullet, that's why they're reading it! If they really thought we were merely a bunch of loonies lobbing smileys at one another, they wouldn't bother checking in.

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'Tis true that we have a loyal following in the press rooms at the Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Style and Philadelphia Weekly.

Some of those folks even post.

[Holly Moore]

Jeeze, they're just teasing us, let's not give them grounds to add "thin-skinned" to "emoticon-happy". 

I think the print folks understand eGullet, that's why they're reading it! If they really thought we were merely a bunch of loonies lobbing smileys at one another, they wouldn't bother checking in.

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One of my peeves. It is a sterotypical cliche, popular with the print media, that intentionally or unintentionally minimalizes eGullet's content and our members' knowledge and experience. Kinda like when wagon builders made fun of the automobile. Not thin-skinned as much as proud of what eGullet and our members are accomplishing in food related news and discussion.

[philadining]

Of course you're right Holly, those little throwaway lines about having to post before sleeping or excessive use of emoticons are meant to subtly, or not-so-subtly, imply that we're not serious, that we're just obsessive nerds, not to be confused with big-J Journalists.

I'm just saying that we shouldn't let it bother us.

And hey, if they can't get the URL right, no biggie, I can never remember which of the weeklies I read something in...

I think there's still a place in the world for conventional food writing, and for a while, much of that will still appear in print, created by "professionals". But while there are upsides and downsides of the wild west of forums like ours, I believe it will be increasingly evident that more and more of the best content will be found in places like eGullet, rather than in traditional journalistic outlets, even if they retool for the web.

So let those folks throw stones if they feel like it. It will eventually dawn on them that we collectively have knowledge, numbers and heck, budgets, that they can only dream of. So I say, let them tease, I think they're envious of our ability to deploy the well-placed puke-icon, and the capacity to tell folks about something great RIGHT NOW!!

[Holly Moore]

I am of a certain age that I will always think of the Philadelphia Weekly as the Welcomat (when the Welcomat decided to go head to head agains the City Paper ten or fifteen years ago, they changed the name to Philadelphia Weekly). I miss aspects of the Welcomat, especially the gigantic letters section. It was the Welcomat and editor Dan Rottenberg in particular that first encouraged my writing - and it started off in their Letters section.

Even the New York Times has gotten our site address wrong, eGullet.Com instead of eGullet.org. So I can't come down on the Philadelphia Weekly all that hard for that.

But "...the wonky, emoticon-happy food geeks who surf the site..." is another matter. I don't take that as teasing. Not at all. That's a holier than though attitude that, as I said before, doesn't get what eGullet is all about and doesn't understand eGullet's influence nationally and internationally. Put much of the writing found on our forums against the Philadelphia Weekly food coverage - and we'd kick ass in terms of style, content and timeliness.

[KatieLoeb]

But "...the wonky, emoticon-happy food geeks who surf the site..." is another matter.  I don't take that as teasing.  Not at all.  That's a holier than though attitude that, as I said before, doesn't get what eGullet is all about and doesn't understand eGullet's influence nationally and internationally.  Put much of the writing found on our forums against the Philadelphia Weekly food coverage - and we'd kick ass in terms of style, content and timeliness.

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You go Holly! You tell 'em! I'm right there with 'ya defending our collective honor. And you have a quite valid point. I'd say most of the posters just in our forum could run circles around much of what passes for food writing in this town.

[philadining]

We've wandered into a murky realm of word usage. "Wonk" and "Geek" have in recent years been used as terms of grudging respect for folks that really know something inside-out.

The "policy-wonks" inside the Beltway aren't targets for derision, but folks that actually bothered to learn about issues being debated in Washington. Hence the adoption by the political hipster blogger "Wonkette".

And similarly, since computers and high tech in general have so dominated popular culture, I see "geek" often used to indicate someone who has mastered some skill, perhaps with monomaniacal focus, but having actually achieved some respectable level of competence.

A decade ago, no doubt, "geek" and "wonk" were meant as insults. Today, I'm not so sure...

And I valiantly try to resist, but there ARE 14 little emoticons lined-up right under the window I'm typing in right now... I'm not sure eGullet is any more infested with them than any other online space, but there certainly are a few of the buggers scurrying around here.

[Holly Moore]

With words like wonk or geek - I'd look at who is saying them. In the case of the Philadelphia Weekly - I suggest that Kirsten and Lauren see themselves as the high school varsity jocks (real journalists paid real money) and they look down upon eGullet posters the same way jocks view those picked last when choosing sides. They say wonk/geek out of anything but respect - Sort of a verbal wedgie to the non-print media eGullet poster.

That said, I don't believe that Kirsten, at least, was intentionally disparaging. But her words belie her attitude about the eGullet Forums vis a vis a newspaper - even though, pardon my emoticon to come - the price of the Philadelphia Weekly and theGullet Forums in terms of cash outlay is exactly the same.